Magnificent Guns of Seneca 6 (23 page)

"Please don't," Ruth begged.
 
"I beg you.
 
I beg all of you.
 
Please don't."

The bandit put his arm around Bob's shoulder and whispered, "You turn sissy in the joint?"

"I can't do this," Bob said.
 
"We never did anything like this when I rode with Jim.
 
This ain't who we were."

"Oh, but it is who we have become, Bob Ford," the bandit said.
 
"Unless you're law."

"I ain't law," Bob hissed.
 

The bandit pointed at Ruth and said, "Then your evening's entertainment awaits."
 
He shoved Bob forward and all of the men whooped and shouted, making lewd gestures at the women in the wagon and telling Ruth all of the things she should do to a man just out of prison.
 

Bob bent down to her and leaned close to her ear, "I'm not gonna hurt you, I promise.
 
I'll be real, real gentle.
 
Don't cry, okay?
 
Just don't cry."

Ruth turned and spat in his face and said, "Go to hell!"

Bob wiped off his face and closed his eyes, keeping them tightly shut as he started to pull up Ruth's long skirt.
 

***

Bob turned his back to the rest of the men and sat by the fire with his knees pulled up to his chin.
 
All of the women were screaming now.
 
The tall, sickly looking woman called Elizabeth Hall tried to escape and two of the men beat her to the ground.
 
"Easy!" the bandit shouted.
 
"Easy, now, goddamn it!
 
Don't bruise 'em.
 
We're meeting the buyer in a few days."
 

He stuffed his shirt back into his pants and zippered his fly as he walked over to Bob and sat down, leaning back against a thick log with both elbows.
 
"How long you say you was in prison?"

"Almost a year," Bob said.

"Took you a little while to get started back there with little Ruth, but you sure went to town once it was underway.
 
I think she almost enjoyed it."

Bob clutched his stomach, about to be sick.
 
"Get the hell away from me."

"Come on, Bob," he said.
 
He put his hand on Bob's shoulder and squeezed it, "We was just having some fun with the ladies is all."
 
He looked back at his men to see that they were still occupied.
 
"Anyway, I needed a distraction so you and me have some privacy, yeah?"

Bob put his hand between his knees where his gun was waiting and cocked the hammer back.
 
The bandit looked down and smiled slyly, "It ain't like that, Bob.
 
Listen, I'm actually glad you're here.
 
It means you got some kind of loyalty to all this, whereas most of these cowpokes are just dumb and desperate.
 
I need a man I can rely on."

"To kidnap women and rape them?"

"I told you that was just a little fun and a way of occupying my boys.
 
We gonna harp on that all night?
 
Or can we talk business like two gentlemen supposed to?"

"Fine," Bob said.
 
"Talk."

"Here's the deal.
 
I bring you into the gang as my second-in-command, my lieutenant.
 
You forget all about this other feller what wore the mask before me.
 
We got a good thing going here, and soon enough, you gonna see that.
 
We're gonna make some real money before all this is through.
 
Enough that you'll be able to get the hell off this planet and go live like a prince."

Bob looked back to the fire for a while before he finally nodded and said, "All right."
 
He turned to the bandit and offered his hand.
 
"It's good to be back together again, sir."
 

Chapter 15: The Man That You Fear

The sentries posted at the furthest edges of the Hopituh Shi-nu-mu camp spotted the small group of riders far in the distance, long before they knew they were seen.
 
The woman formed her fingers into tight circles and pressed them against her eyes, a hunter's trick she'd seen her husband use a thousand times before.
 
"It is him," she whispered.
 
"It cannot be."
  

She watched the man brush dust from his suit coat's sleeves and whip the long braid from the back of his bald head around like a whip.
 
All of the Beothuk warriors riding with him had rifles adored with feathers and fresh scalps with long, flowing black hair.
 
She recognized them as the ones taken from her uncles and neighbors and the woman jumped up from beneath the dry patch of reeds and ran with her dusty blanket over her shoulders, trying to keep low.
 
She jumped over the women still sleeping on their blankets as she raced toward the middle of the camp and collapsed at Hehewuti's feet.
 
"Nukpana is coming!" she gasped.
 
"A dozen men, all riding this way."

Panic set in immediately, sending all of the women racing around the camp to grab up their children and weapons, many of them struggling to hold both at the same time.
 
"How far away are they?" Hehewuti said.
 
 

"A mile off, two at most."

"Were you seen?"

"I don't know.
 
I don't think so," she said quickly.

The other women had gathered around the old woman, waiting for instructions.
 
A few raced after their children, holding them tightly against their chest, trying not to panic.
 
"We must run," someone said.
 
Another argued that they could stand their ground against the lesser number of men, while others feared that they were being flanked by the rest from an unseen direction.
 
  

"Be silent so I can think!" Hehewuti shouted.
 
"No one panics and no one goes anywhere."
 

Kachina leapt to her feet and ran for the hidden cache of weapons buried near the fire.
 
She gathered up the spears and knives and bows that belonged to their prisoners and hurried toward the water where the boys were sleeping. "What are you doing?" Hehewuti said.
 
 

"Giving us a chance!"

Haienwa'tha sat up from his blanket in time to see Kachina running toward them.
 
"Nukpana is coming!
 
The devil comes!"
 
She dropped the weapons onto the ground near them and said, "Will you help us?"

Both Haienwa'tha and Thathanka-Ska immediately stood up and armed themselves.
 
They tied their knives around their waists and slung their quivers and bows over their shoulders.
 
Haienwa'tha kicked Lakhpia-Sha and said, "Get up!
 
We have trouble."

"Why should we?
 
They took us prisoner last night and now they want us to fight for them?"

"They're all alone out here," Thathanka-Ska said.

"I know that.
 
I'm just saying-"

"Get up," Haienwa'tha sighed.
 
"You can stand behind Thathanka-Ska if you're scared."

Lakhpia-Sha felt his cheeks get hot as he looked at Kachina.
 
"I'm not scared.
 
I just think they should have been nicer to us if they expect us to risk our necks for them, is all."
 
He wiggled into his shirt and got up reluctantly to look for his medicine bag.
 

All of the women turned to watch the boys approach.
 
Some of them knocked arrows to their bows and wrapped their fingers around the strings, ready to fire.
 
Haienwa'tha said, "How far off are they?"

"Half a mile or less," Hehewuti said.

He nodded and turned around to look back at where their campsite lay.
 
"When we first came here, before we crossed the river, there were dwellings carved into the mountains along the trail."

"What of them?"

"Take your people and hide there," he said.
 
"It is on high ground with only a few ways in.
 
You can defend it if you need to."

"We will never have time to get everyone safely away before they get here."

"You will if they are distracted," Haienwa'tha said.
 

The old woman squinted up at him in the sunlight and said, "This is not your fight, son of Thasuka-Witko.
 
He will kill you and your friends just as he did to our husbands and sons."

"Then we will try to die slowly while you make your escape, old woman," he said.

Hehewuti laughed at him and barked for the women to head for the dwellings.
 
She clapped a wrinkled hand on his shoulder as she limped past, telling all of the women to stay low and help each other into the water.
 

"What the hell are you getting us into?" Lakhpia-Sha said.
 

"We'll be fine," Haienwa'tha said.
 
"I know exactly what I'm doing."

Thathanka-Ska leaned close to Lakhpia-Sha's ear and whispered, "I've heard that before.
 
Now I
know
we're in trouble."

Haienwa'tha looked back at the crowd of women and frowned.
 
"They'll be seen.
 
There's too many of them."

Lakhpia-Sha snapped his fingers and said, "We need a dust storm."

Thathanka-Ska laughed sharply, "Are you going to conjure one up, apprentice?"

"Yes," the boy said.
 
"Give me a moment."
 
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then began to mutter softly to himself.
 
He raised his arms and moved them in circles, beginning his dance.
 

"I've got a better idea," Thathanka-Ska said.
 
He ran for his destrier and hopped onto its back, making the thing bolt for the dry, hard dirt then cutting it sideways so that its hooves kicked up an enormous blast of dust into the air.
 
He raced across the ground and spun hard, making another cloud billow up until it twisted in the wind.
 
"Come on!" he shouted.
 

Haienwa'tha watched Lakhpia-Sha's hands fall at his side in defeat and said, "It would have been a fine storm, I'm sure."

Lakhpia-Sha shrugged, "But not sure enough to wait for me to try."